Celebrating the great Canadian game. Tracking the NHL, the Canadian teams and a lot more!

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Sabres take charge of game, take lead in series.

The Sabres took a look at the video of game two and realized that they had to get back onto their game to have success against the Carolina Hurricanes. Wednesday night, they used their speed and puck possession to pace them on to a 4-3 victoryover the Canes and a 2-1 lead in the best of seven series.

That seemed to spur Carolina on a bit, as Gerber made a number of key saves on short handed breaks by the Sabres, keeping the Sabres close in the process and allowing his team mates to turn the comeback attempt on.

By the end of the night however, the Canes came up a goal short as Ray Miller held the fort after a few flourishes of action. It was a wild last couple of minutes as the Hurricanes built on their momentum and tried to find the equalizer before time ran out.

The most noticeable aspect of this game was the speed from both teams, the Sabres seemed to be flying through the Canes zone in the second period, the pace they kept with their four goals was impressive, they seemed to come in waves towards Ward and the defence couldn’t figure out how to slow them down.

Once Carolina picked up a second goal however, it was their turn to turn up the speed and take the play into the Sabre end of the rink. Setting up the wild finish and sending notice to the Sabres that they aren’t quite ready to blow out to sea just yet.

Game four goes Friday evening, sure to once again be a fast paced match, if either team leaves their skating legs in the dressing room, they may find that they’ll be returning there at the end of the game with a loss to register at the league office.